Topic: Obesity, Nutrition/Diet, Physical Activity, Sedentary Behavior
Target Population: Adults
Sector: Community-Based
This program is for men and women who are 35 to 65 years old and are overweight or obese.
Football Fans in Training (FFIT), a community-based weight-management program, is delivered through professional football (American soccer) clubs and intends to help participants lose weight, maintain their weight loss, and make positive changes to their physical-activity levels and dietary behaviors.
Results from two randomized trials have found significant positive effects for weight loss, percentage of weight lost, waist circumference, and systolic blood pressure at 12 weeks for men in the intervention group compared to a control group. In both trials, these effects were found to still be present when participants were assessed at 12 months. Both studies also assessed secondary outcomes including self-reported physical activity, self-reported diet, and self-esteem and found significant improvements for those in the intervention group compared to the control group. The effects for these outcomes were also sustained when assessed at 12 months. Results from a follow-up conducted 3.5 years after baseline indicated sustained weight loss and improvements in self-reported physical-activity, dietary, and psychological outcomes in the intervention group. In addition, one single-group feasibility study evaluated an adaptation of the program for women. Posttest results indicated significant improvements in weight; body mass index; waist circumference; blood pressure; and self-reported physical-activity, dietary, and psychological outcomes.
FFIT intends to motivate participants to lose weight and improve their well-being and psychological health by delivering the program through football clubs in the Scottish Professional Football League in actual football stadiums and employing community coaching staff to lead activities. Sessions are held in same-sex groups of approximately 30 participants who meet with two coaches and discuss the following:
FFIT was developed in Scotland in 2009-2010 and was tested in 11 of Scotland’s top professional football clubs during fall 2010 and spring 2011. The program has been scaled up through a single-license franchise model in over 70 United Kingdom professional football clubs and scaled out into football and other sporting contexts Australia, Canada, England, Germany, New Zealand, and other European countries. The program has also been adapted for implementation with ice hockey and rugby fans.
This program is implemented at professional football club facilities by trained club coaches. Coaches complete a 2-day training that intends to foster full competence in delivering the program and help coaches feel ownership of the delivery of the program while adhering to the key program tasks.
Considerations for implementing this program include finding a club to participate in the program and obtaining buy-in from key stakeholders, recruiting coaches and ensuring they complete training, acquiring participant buy-in, understanding costs will be associated with program implementation, realizing this program has only been offered outside of the United States, and finding a suitable location to hold weekly sessions.
The Clearinghouse can help address these considerations. Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email Clearinghouse@psu.edu
If you are interested in implementing FFIT, the Clearinghouse is interested in helping you!
Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email Clearinghouse@psu.edu
The FFIT program consists of 13-weekly, 90-minute sessions. In the first 45 minutes, participants are given tips and advice about improving their lifestyle and well-being in a classroom setting. In the second half of each session, participants engage in light exercise and physical activity.
Implementation costs will vary based on the number of participants, the location, and other factors.
To move FFIT to the to the Effective category on the Clearinghouse Continuum of Evidence at least one external evaluation must be conducted that demonstrates sustained, positive outcomes. This study must be conducted independently of the program developer.
The Clearinghouse can help you develop an evaluation plan to ensure the program components are meeting your goals. Please call 1-877-382-9185 or email Clearinghouse@psu.edu
Contact the Clearinghouse with any questions regarding this program.
Phone: 1-877-382-9185 Email: Clearinghouse@psu.edu
You may also contact the Scottish Professional Football League Trust by email enquiries@spfltrust.org.uk or vist https://spfltrust.org.uk/contact-us/
https://spfltrust.org.uk/ffit/, https://ffit.org.uk/, and Wyke et al. (2015)
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Gray, C. M., Hunt, K., Mutrie, N., Anderson, A. S., Treweek, S., & Wyke, S. (2013). Weight management for overweight and obese men delivered through professional football clubs: A pilot randomized trial. The International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 10(1), 121. https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-10-121
Gray, C. M., Wyke, S., Zhang, R., Anderson, A. S., Barry, S., Boyer, N., … Hunt, K. (2018). Long-term weight loss trajectories following participation in a randomised controlled trial of a weight management programme for men delivered through professional football clubs: A longitudinal cohort study and economic evaluation. The International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 15(1), 60. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-018-0683-3
Gray, C. M., Wyke, S., Zhang, R., Anderson, A. S., Barry, S., Brennan, G., … Hunt, K. (2018). Long-term weight loss following a randomised controlled trial of a weight management programme for men delivered through professional football clubs: The football fans in training follow-up study. Public Health Research, 6(9), 1-114. https://doi.org/10.3310/phr06090
Hunt, K., Wyke, S., Gray, C. M., Anderson, A. S., Brady, A., Bunn, C., ... Treweek, S. (2014). A gender-sensitised weight loss and healthy living programme for overweight and obese men delivered by Scottish premier league football clubs (FFIT): A pragmatic randomised controlled trial. The Lancet, 383(9924), 1211-1221. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(13)62420-4
Pietsch, B., Manske, M., Hanewinkel, R., Kaduszkiewicz, H., & Morgenstern, M. (2024). Long‐term effects of a lifestyle modification program for men with obesity delivered in German football clubs. Clinical Obesity, 14(6), e12696. https://doi.org/10.1111/cob.12696
Pietsch, B., Weisser, B., Hanewinkel, R., Gray, C., Hunt, K., Wyke, S., & Morgenstern, M. (2020). Short term effects of a weight loss and healthy lifestyle programme for overweight and obese men delivered by German football clubs. European Journal of Sport Science, 20(5), 703-712. https://doi.org/10.1080/17461391.2019.1660809
Wyke, S., Hunt, K., Gray, C. M., Fenwick, E., Bunn, C., Donnan, P.T., ... Treeweek, S. (2015). Football fans in training (FFIT): A randomised trial of a gender-sensitised weight loss and health living programme for men – End of study report. Public Health Research, 3, 1-129.
Bunn, C., Wyke, S., Gray, C. M., Maclean, A., & Hunt, K. (2016). ‘Coz football is what we all have’: Masculinities, practice, performance and effervescence in a gender‐sensitised weight‐loss and healthy living programme for men. Sociology of Health & Illness, 38(5), 812-828. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.12402
Donnachie, C., Hunt, K., Mutrie, N., Gill, J. M. R., & Kelly, P. (2020). Responsiveness of device-based and self-report measures of physical activity to detect behavior change in men taking part in the football fans in training (FFIT) program. Journal for the Measurement of Physical Behaviour, 3(1), 67-77. https://doi.org/10.1123/jmpb.2019-0018
Donnachie, C., Wyke, S., & Hunt, K. (2018). Men's reactions to receiving objective feedback on their weight, BMI and other health risk indicators. BMC Public Health, 18(1), 291. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5179-1
Donnachie, C., Wyke, S., Mutrie, N., & Hunt, K. (2017). 'It's like a personal motivator that you carried around wi' you': Utilising self-determination theory to understand men's experiences of using pedometers to increase physical activity in a weight management programme. The International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 14(1), 61. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12966-017-0505-z
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MacLean, A., Hunt, K., Gray, C., Smillie, S., & Wyke, S. (2014). How do men's female relatives feature in their accounts of changing eating practices during a weight-management programme delivered through professional football clubs? International Journal of Men's Health, 13(2), 121-138. https://doi.org/10.3149/jmh.1302.121
Pietsch, B., Hanewinkel, R., & Morgenstern, M. (2022). Football fans' emotional attachment to their clubs as a predictor of weight loss in a prevention programme for men with obesity. Clinical Obesity, 12(5). https://doi.org/10.1111/cob.12540
Tripathee, S., Sweeting, H., Chambers, S., & Maclean, A. (2020). How men receive and utilise partner support when trying to change their diet and physical activity within a men's weight management programme. BMC Public Health, 20(1), 199. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-8213-z
